A Highly Efficient Broadband mm-Wave 24-32.5 GHz SiGe PA for Potential 5G Applications

Abstract

We present in this work a highly efficient broadband millimeter-wave power amplifier (mm-wave PA) design in a 90nm SiGe technology for potential 5G applications. The post-layout extraction simulations suggest that the PA achieves broadband power-added efficiency (PAE) >31.4%, gain >8.5 dB, and POUT,sat >13.3 dBm across 24-32.5 GHz, with peak PAE of 40.2% at 26 GHz. The PA shows good linearity with 16-QAM LTE 250 MHz modulated signal input, obtaining ACLR1 of -38.6/-37.3 dBc at 26 GHz with POUT,avg of 6.4 dBm. The PA is also robust against variation in bias VB = 0.83-0.85 V and supply VCC = 1.0-1.4 V and can be applicable toward multi-band 5G applications.